The huge public outrage against the killing of seven amarnath yatris in Anantnag in South Kashmir has shown that Kashmiriyat is very much alive in valley irrespective of the fact that wounds of over 100 families of last year’s victims have not and this is a grim reminder to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti who many a times during last year’s budget session in assembly said “ Kashmiriyat is missing in Kashmir but prevailing in Jammu” . The public outrage has terrified RSS backed BJP’s hate-mongers supporting the Mehbooba Mufti’s coalition government into silence. Though people were glad to see Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti spending night with the survivors of the attack at the Anantnag district hospital and apologising for their loss, but they were simultaneously shocked not to see Chief Minister sitting by the side of the pellet victims during last year’s unrest. The more shocking is the institutional failure of the government as even the police statement clarified that the attack was not aimed at the bus carrying yatris but the bus came under fire when gunmen were attacking police and a paramilitary CRPF party and consequently the government is now finding itself cornered on the questions being asked on the allegation of security lapses. Interestingly it was none else than Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh the head of the BJP part of Mehbooba led PDP-BJP coalition ministry who told NDTV “Yes, definitely this is a big lapse. We have to enquire why the bus left at 5pm, why it was allowed to take to the road after sunset” and with Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh virtually endorsed the allegations of security lapses. Since both the central and the state governments’ have been endorsing the reports that militancy is on the rise in valley and so is the frequency of violent street protests triggered by the killing of Burhan Wani the slain Hizb ul Mujahideen commander on July 8 last year , the government had to take extra security measures for the smooth conduct of amaranth yatra this year.
While many mainstream politicians both in the state and the centre did question that whether the attack was on yatris or not, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s officer Jitendra Singh during a press conference in Srinagar said that security agencies are investigating the issues concerning allegations of security lapses. Since the lapses could have been caused by the laxity shown by the security agency, So the conduct of any investigation by security agencies against themselves can’t be fair and transparent. There have been major human rights violations in Kashmir over the past 30 years since the armed uprising started in 1989 but not even a single government sponsored inquiry has satisfied the people and the politicians. The issue of human rights violations in Kashmir has been a major concern for everyone, but hardly any corrective measure like the conduct of an impartial investigation has been taken to stop it. The killing of yatris should be a starting point. Government though acknowledges it very well that Kashmiri muslims have always welcomed hindus for the annual amaranth yatra arms open and will not tolerate any act of terror against people of other faith, but it does not show willingness to concede the demands of a high level judicial probe for identifying the real culprits of the attack on amaranth yatris.
